Refugee employment in regional Victoria: practice perspectives from service providers, local government and labour market intermediaries

Transcription

1 Refugee employment in regional Victoria: practice perspectives from service providers, local government and labour market intermediaries Thriving or Surviving? Work and economic security for refugees and people seeking asylum Wednesday 7 th December 2016 Martina Boese latrobe.edu.au CRICOS Provider 00115M

2 Outline of today s presentation Refugees in regional locations: what is the problem? Background on research project and methods Selected key findings on roles of local government, business and community sector 2

3 What is the problem? 1. Which employment barriers and opportunities are refugees experiencing in regional locations? 2. How are these addressed by different stakeholders? Contexts of regional settlement - direct (re)settlement of unlinked refugees and humanitarian entrants by federal government (f.ex. Congolese in Shepparton and Ballarat, Karen in Geelong) - Assisted relocation through resettlement initiatives by regional stakeholders (f.ex. Warrnambool, Swan Hill) - Secondary migration (relocation) from cities or other regional sites Source: abcnet.au 3

4 ARC Linkage project Resettling visible migrants and refugees in regional Australia ( ) Research team: Joint Chief Investigators: Prof Brian Galligan, Dr Millsom S Henry-Waring ( ) Dr Martina Boese (APDI), Ms Melissa Phillips (PhD cand), Annika Kearton (RA) Industry Partners: Municipal Association Victoria (MAV), Office for Multicultural Affairs and Citizenship (OMAC) 4

5 Research aims Investigate the interrelated social, economic and political factors that drive and shape regional and rural settlement experiences of recently-arrived, visible migrants and refugees. Paying specific attention to: i. Pre-migration experiences ii. Identities of migrants and refugees as new arrivals iii. New arrivals employment pathways and experiences in the context of overall settlement iv. Inter-relationship between policies that govern and fund settlement at Federal, State and local levels 5

6 Research sites and methods Research sites: - 6 regional/rural Local Government Areas (LGAs) - 2 metropolitan LGAs (for comparison) a. Literature and policy review; 9 community information sessions b. National online survey with 106 stakeholders working in settlementrelated areas in government and community sector c. Focus groups with 90 stakeholders working in settlement-related areas in 8 research sites d. Interviews with 85 recently-arrived migrants and refugees e. 37 Expert (policy and employer) interviews 6

7 Selected findings I. Barriers and opportunities Which employment barriers and opportunities are refugees experiencing in regional locations? Barriers Difficulties in accessing jobs due to insufficient English skills and discrimination in recruitment Underemployment, both hours and skills-wise Insufficient AMEP access compatible with work Insufficient opportunites for training and re-skilling Employment opportunities Primarily in meat processing, aged care, childcare, horticulture Mainly casual, often very few hours Source: oxri0.png/ jpg ; abc.net, Courtney Wilson 7

8 Selected findings II. Local responses Common response to new refugee groups: unpreparedness both at level of material resources and competencies; focus on social integration and responses of locals to newcomers Wide agreement on significance of employment being key to successful settlement and employment barriers an obstacle that needs addressing. I suppose that's the ultimate to be able to become integrated into a community is to be able to get a job within the community, get an income and contribute back. Regional service provider 8

9 Selected findings II. Local responses Location A. Key actors: Employer - Labour hire company who recruited and assisted relocation of workers from Melbourne in collaboration with Melbournebased settlement service provider; providing settlement assistance on location Key partners: local Adult Education provider (AMEP provider) Location B. Key actor: Melbourne-based settlement service and local government that helped fund local community development project Key partners: employer; church 9

10 Selected findings II. Local employer response With [this business] we ve had a very close relationship for a long time so it s been easy putting in place that from the moment we started and we go back again to the Sudanese it was very much a big educational process for the work force so we had some processes in place long before the Sudanese actually arrived on the door step about what was happening after that we had a process about the cultural background of the Sudanese and the environment they came from and the impacts coming into Australia has on them so that the work force understood. Regional employer 10

11 Selected findings II. Local responses Location C. Key actors: multitude of local service providers; local government Key partners: local settlement planning committee (LSPC); local TAFE (vocational training adjusted to English learners) Location D. Key actors: local community service provider (funded by state and federal gov; multiple programs in one-stop stop incl targeted employment service for CALD clients) Key partners: local government; Local settlement planning committee 11

12 Selected findings II. Service provider response The good thing that I m seeing.. where before people coming through English Language were not as successful is succeeding vocational training, they were either not being accepted- not many of them, mainly African people- or they were getting in there and they just could not work. ( ) Their writing skills were not good enough. And we have seen, well it started with a hospitality course, which was specifically designed for people with low literacy because the few of us doing the talk were vocational training; what are the language needs? Do they need to write essays? What are you testing, English language or knowledge? And that is starting to happen, and now we're getting half of our English Language students are also doing vocational training. So I see that as being.. it doesn't help them get jobs, but it's a start. Service provider 12

13 In conclusion Scarcity of employment or education and training pathways in regional locations Highly variable responses of different stakeholders in different locations, mediated partly through local settlement planning committees Variable leadership at local government level: as settlement service provider; as facilitator of community development; advocate of multiculturalism; employer,.. Scarcity of specialist support services for refugee jobseekers versus multiple, competing providers Multifunctional employers with limited accountability 13

14 References: Galligan, B., Boese, M. and Phillips, M. (2014) Becoming Australian. Migration, Settlement, Citizenship. Melbourne University Publishing. Boese, M. (2013) At the meatworks and beyond: Sudanese employment experiences in regional Australia, in T. Lyons, A. Harris and J. Marlowe (eds) Sudanese Diaspora in Australia and New Zealand: Reconciling the Past with the Present, Cambridge Scholars Publishing. Boese, M. (2015) The roles of employers in the regional settlement of recently arrived migrants and refugees, Journal of Sociology, 51(2):

15 Thank you Martina Boese latrobe.edu.au CRICOS Provider 00115M